Increase in attendance leads to Kerith Community Church expansion

Kerith Community Church senior Pastor Simon Benhamat the opening of the church's new reception in 2011. Now the church is expanding into Sandhurst.

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A huge increase in the number of people going to a Bracknell church on Sundays has led to an exciting new project.

With the number of weekly visitors doubling to almost 1,000 people, Kerith Community Church is due to expand.

This Sunday will mark the launch of the Sandhurst Service, which will be held in the theatre at Sandhurst School, in Owlsmoor Road, from 10am.

Ben Pocock, who will lead the service with his wife Heather, said he was looking forward to the “exciting” opportunity.

He added: “We’ve been involved in the church for quite a while so it’s really exciting to be able to do this.

“We’ve had more and more people coming to our Sunday service in Bracknell and we’re running out of space.

“We know we have a lot of people coming from Sandhurst and Camberley so this will mean they don’t have to travel so far and there will be more space.

“The theatre holds 220 people and we’re hoping to start off with about 100 to 150.

“There are a lot of brilliant churches in Sandhurst so in no way are we trying to stop people going to them, we just want to offer what we do to more people.”

Although not based in Bracknell, the meeting will be run by Kerith Community Church.

Ben said: “We’ll run the Kerith Kids groups which the Bracknell services run so families can still come to all together. There are three different groups ranging from babies to five-year-olds, five to 11-year-olds and 11 to 14-year-olds.

“Our church is quite contemporary and we’ll still be sending the same message.

“People will leave our services feeling like they’ve heard something that really relates to their own lives.”

The Sandhurst service will take place at 10am on Sundays, but if it proves popular it may expand to run the same extra classes provided at the main Bracknell service.